Whether Trump was in part responsible for the talks is debatable. His very strong policy on them forced the ramp up of nuclear tests and the like, leading to the collapsed facility. That said you can argue that China was getting very peeved from how Kim was behaving, trying to defend him whilst promoting a positive message in the area wasn't working and China was aware of this.
China would have been the main player in this, they were the only ones importing anything and when they stopped pulling in coal from North Korea it was pulling the plug on a comatose economy. There was also the chance they were lining up a replacement for Kim, someone more malleable and who'd stay quiet. Let's not forget that Kim's early act was to assassinate a potential usurper (not that the chap had any interest himself, but that he may have been used by China).
The only think North Korea had was the nuclear option, more tests and more missiles. Well, in the light of the destroyed facility that leverage has disappeared (in the case of the former). The missile tests near Japan were possibly being encouraged by Russia and China to see what sort of defence systems the US had in place there. This has also been the case in Syria where each side is trying to work out what systems the other is using.
The only thing left is to buy time through peace talks knowing no-one will touch him.
Kim's in a tricky position, if he starts opening up North Korea then his people will start to realise what's going on, and that won't end well. He'll probably find something very pedantic to throw a tantrum over in order to back down from any talks when the time is right. It's worth noting that the current set of talks are largely a selection of diplomatic set-pieces where both leaders plant a tree, walk together and, er, well do lots of stuff for the cameras.
Yep - that’s how I see it too.
Thanks for the time-saving. I’ll use it to, errr, look at another thread on NSC.